Residential Differentiation, Housing Policy and Urban Planning in the Transformation from State Socialism to a Market Economy: The Case of Tallinn

The thesis examines urban issues arising from the transformation from state socialism to a market economy. The main topics are residential differentiation, i.e., uneven spatial distribution of social groups across urban residential areas, and the effects of housing policy and town planning on urban development. The case study is development in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, in the context of development of Central and Eastern European cities under and after socialism. The main body of the thesis consists of four separately published refereed articles. The research question that brings the articles together is how the residential (socio-spatial) pattern of cities developed during the state socialist period and how and why that pattern has changed since the transformation to a market economy began. The first article reviews the literature on residential differentiation in Budapest, Prague, Tallinn and Warsaw under state socialism from the viewpoint of the role of housing policy in the processes of residential differentiation at various stages of the socialist era. The paper shows how the socialist housing provision system produced socio-occupational residential differentiation directly and indirectly and it describes how the residential patterns of these cities developed. The second article is critical of oversimplified accounts of rapid reorganisation of the overall socio-spatial pattern of post-socialist cities and of claims that residential mobility has had a straightforward role in it. The Tallinn case study, consisting of an analysis of the distribution of socio-economic groups across eight city districts and over four housing types in 1999 as well as examining the role of residential mobility in differentiation during the 1990s, provides contrasting evidence. The third article analyses the role and effects of housing policies in Tallinn s residential differentiation. The focus is on contemporary post-privatisation housing-policy measures and their effects. The article shows that the Estonian housing policies do not even aim to reduce, prevent or slow down the harmful effects of the considerable income disparities that are manifest in housing inequality and residential differentiation. The fourth article examines the development of Tallinn s urban planning system 1991-2004 from the viewpoint of what means it has provided the city with to intervene in urban development and how the city has used these tools. The paper finds that despite some recent progress in planning, its role in guiding where and how the city actually developed has so far been limited. Tallinn s urban development is rather initiated and driven by private agents seeking profit from their investment in land. The thesis includes original empirical research in the three articles that analyse development since socialism. The second article employs quantitative data and methods, primarily index calculation, whereas the third and the fourth ones draw from a survey of policy documents combined with interviews with key informants. Keywords: residential differentiation, housing policy, urban planning, post-socialist transformation, Estonia, Tallinn

Sireenit, floksit ja iirikset- Puu-Käpylän koristekasvit

Puu-Käpylä (“Wooden Käpylä”), a neighbourhood of Helsinki, is the earliest example of the Garden City Movement in Finland. The suburb of valuable wooden architecture was built between 1920 and 1925, with the aim to provide a healthy housing area for working-class families with many children. The houses were erected by a co-operative (Käpylän kansanasunnot, “People?s Dwellings”) and they are protected by the city plan since 1960?s. However, the historical value of the sheltered courtyards has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to survey the garden flora of Puu-Käpylä and to evaluate the authenticity of the courtyard gardens. The survey covered the area of one residential quarter (1.2 ha) with twelve 2-storey semi-detached timber houses arranged around a common yard, which was originally appointed for the tenants? vegetable gardens. The houses are still rented, and each flat is allowed a small lot of the courtyard for cultivation. A complete list was made of all perennial, ornamental plant taxa present in the quarter. Spring bulbs were missed due to the timing of the survey. Generally, the plants were recorded on species level, with the exception of common lilacs, shrub roses, irises and peonies that were thoroughly studied for cultivar identification. It was assumed that plants initially grown in the courtyard could be distinguished by studying Finnish garden magazines, books and nursery catalogues published in the 1920?s and by comparing the present vegetation to surviving documents from the quarter. The total number of ornamental plant taxa identified was 172, of which 17 were trees, 47 shrubs, 7 climbers and 101 herbaceous perennials. The results indicated that a major part of the shrubs, climbers and perennials presumably originated from the 1970?s or later, whereas ca. 70 % of the tree specimens were deemed as original. The survey disclosed a heritage variety of common lilac, resembling cultivar „Prince Notger?, a specific peony taxon, Paeonia humilis Retz., cultivated in Nordic countries since long ago, and a few historic iris varieties. Well-preserved design elements included front gardens on one side of the quarter, a maple alley on another side as well as trees at the garden gates. Old garden books and magazines did not shed much light on the Finnish garden flora commonly used in the period when Puu-Käpylä was built. However, they gave a valuable picture of contemporary planting design. Nursery catalogues offered insight into the assortment of ornamental plants traded in the 1920?s. Conclusions on the authenticity of the current flora were mainly drawn on the basis of old photographs and a vegetation survey map drawn in the 1970?s. This study revealed a need for standardization of syrvey methods applied when investigating garden floras. Uniform survey techniques would make the results comparable and enable a future compilation of data from e.g. historic gardens.

Prospects for wind energy utilisation in Karnataka State

An examination of the data available at 22 meteorological stations in Karnataka State shows that wind velocities in the State as a whole are neither spectacularly high nor negligibly low. The highest winds (annual mean of around 13 km/hr) are experienced in parts of the northern maidan region of the State (Gulbarga, Raichur and Bidar districts) and in Bangalore. The winds are strongly seasonal: typically, the five monsoon months May-September account for about 80% of the annual wind energy flux. Although the data available are inadequate to make precise estimates, they indicate that the total wind energy potential of the State is about an order of magnitude higher than the current electrical energy consumption. The possible exploitation of wind energy for applications in rural areas therefore requires serious consideration, but it is argued that to be successful it is essential to formulate an integrated and carefully planned programme. The output of current windpumps needs to be increased; a doubling should be feasible by the design of suitable load-matching devices. The first cost has to be reduced by careful design, by the use of local materials and skills and by employing a labour-intensive technology. A consideration of the agricultural factors in the northern maidan region of the State shows that there is likely to be a strong need for mechanical assistance in supplemental and life-saving irrigation for the dry crops characteristic of the area. A technological target for a windmill that could find applications in this area would be one with a rotor diameter of about 10 m that can lift about 10,000 litres of water per hour in winds of 10 km/hr (2.8 m/s) hourly average speed and costs less than about Rs 10,000. Although no such windmills exist as of today, the authors believe that achievement of this target is feasible. An examination of various possible scenarios for the use of windmills in this area suggests that with a windpump costing about Rs 12,000, a three hectare farm growing two dry crops a year can expect an annual return of about 150% from an initial investment of about Rs 15,000. It is concluded that it should be highly worthwhile to undertake a coordinated programme for wind energy development that will include more detailed wind surveys in the northern maidan area (as well as some others, such as the Western Ghats), the development of suitable windmill designs and a study of their applications to agriculture as well as to other fields.

Perinatal mortality and maternal health in rural China

Background and context Since the economic reforms of 1978, China has been acclaimed as a remarkable economy, achieving 9% annual growth per head for more than 25 years. However, China's health sector has not fared well. The population health gains slowed down and health disparities increased. In the field of health and health care, significant progress in maternal care has been achieved. However, there still remain important disparities between the urban and rural areas and among the rural areas in terms of economic development. The excess female infant deaths and the rapidly increasing sex ratio at birth in the last decade aroused serious concerns among policy makers and scholars. Decentralization of the government administration and health sector reform impacts maternal care. Many studies using census data have been conducted to explore the determinants of a high sex ratio at birth, but no agreement has been so far reached on the possible contributing factors. No study using family planning system data has been conducted to explore perinatal mortality and sex ratio at birth and only few studies have examined the impact of the decentralization of government and health sector reforms on the provision and organization of maternal care in rural China. Objectives The general objective of this study was to investigate the state of perinatal health and maternal care and their determinants in rural China under the historic context of major socioeconomic reforms and the one child family planning policy. The specific objectives of the study included: 1) to study pregnancy outcomes and perinatal health and their correlates in a rural Chinese county; 2) to examine the issue of sex ratio at birth and its determinants in a rural Chinese county; 3) to explore the patterns of provision, utilization, and content of maternal care in a rural Chinese county; 4) to investigate the changes in the use of maternal care in China from 1991 to 2003. Materials and Methods This study is based on a project for evaluating the prenatal care programme in Dingyuan county in 1999-2003, Anhui province, China and a nationwide household health survey to describe the changes in maternal care utilization. The approaches used included a retrospective cohort study, cross sectional interview surveys, informant interviews, observations and the use of statistical data. The data sources included the following: 1) A cohort of pregnant women followed from pregnancy up to 7 days after birth in 20 townships in the study county, collecting information on pregnancy outcomes using family planning records; 2) A questionnaire interview survey given to women who gave birth between 2001 and 2003; 3) Various statistical and informant surveys data collected from the study county; 4) Three national household health interview survey data sets (1993-2003) were utilized, and reanalyzed to described the changes in maternity care utilization. Relative risks (RR) and their confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for comparison between parity, approval status, infant sex and township groups. The chi-square test was used to analyse the disparity of use of maternal care between and within urban and rural areas and its trend across the years in China. Logistic regression was used to analyse the factors associated with hospital delivery in rural areas. Results There were 3697 pregnancies in the study cohort, resulting in 3092 live births in a total population of 299463 in the 20 study townships during 1999-2000. The average age at pregnancy in the cohort was 25.9 years. Of the women, 61% were childless, 38% already had one child and 0.3% had two children before the current pregnancy. About 90% of approved pregnancies ended in a live birth while 73% of the unapproved ones were aborted. The perinatal mortality rate was 69 per thousand births. If the 30 induced abortions in which the gestational age was more than 28 weeks had been counted as perinatal deaths, the perinatal mortality rate would have been as high as 78 per thousand. The perinatal mortality rate was negatively associated with the wealth of the township. Approximately two thirds of the perinatal deaths occurred in the early neonatal period. Both the still birth rate and the early neonatal death rate increased with parity. The risk of a stillbirth in a second pregnancy was almost four times that for a first pregnancy, while the risk of early neonatal deaths doubled. The early neonatal mortality rate was twice as high for female as for male infants. The sex difference in the early neonatal mortality rate was mainly attributable to mortality in second births. The male early neonatal mortality rate was not affected by parity, while the female early neonatal mortality rate increased dramatically with parity: it was about six times higher for second births than for first births. About 82% early neonatal deaths happened within 24 hours after birth, and during that time, girls were almost three times more likely to die than boys. The death rate of females on the day of birth increased much more sharply with parity than that of males. The total sex ratio at birth of 3697 registered pregnancies was 152 males to 100 females, with 118 and 287 in first and second pregnancies, respectively. Among unapproved pregnancies, there were almost 5 live-born boys for each girl. Most prenatal and delivery care was to be taken care of in township hospitals. At the village level, there were small private clinics. There was no limitation period for the provision of prenatal and postnatal care by private practitioners. They were not permitted to provide delivery care by the county health bureau, but as some 12% of all births occurred either at home or at private clinics; some village health workers might have been involved. The county level hospitals served as the referral centers for the township hospitals in the county. However, there was no formal regulation or guideline on how the referral system should work. Whether or not a woman was referred to a higher level hospital depended on the individual midwife's professional judgment and on the clients' compliance. The county health bureau had little power over township hospitals, because township hospitals had in the decentralization process become directly accountable to the township government. In the township and county hospitals only 10-20% of the recurrent costs were funded by local government (the township hospital was funded by the township government and the county hospital was funded by the county government) and the hospitals collected user fees to balance their budgets. Also the staff salaries depended on fee incomes by the hospital. The hospitals could define the user charges themselves. Prenatal care consultations were however free in most township hospitals. None of the midwives made postnatal home visits, because of low profit of these services. The three national household health survey data showed that the proportion of women receiving their first prenatal visit within 12 weeks increased greatly from the early to middle 1990s in all areas except for large cities. The increase was much larger in the rural areas, reducing the urban-rural difference from more than 4 times to about 1.4 times. The proportion of women that received antenatal care visits meeting the Ministry of Health s standard (at least 5 times) in the rural areas increased sharply from 12% in 1991-1993 to 36% in 2001-2003. In rural areas, the proportion increase was much faster in less developed areas than in developed areas. The hospital delivery rate increased slightly from 90% to 94% in urban areas while the proportion increased from 27% to 69% in rural areas. The fastest change was found to be in type 4 rural areas, where the utilization even quadrupled. The overall difference between rural and urban areas was substantially narrowed over the period. Multiple logistic regression analysis shows that time periods, residency in rural or urban areas, income levels, age group, education levels, delivery history, occupation, health insurance and distance from the nearest health care facilities were significantly associated with hospital delivery rates. Conclusions 1. Perinatal mortality in this study was much higher than that for urban areas as well as any reported rate from specific studies in rural areas of China. Previous studies in which calculations of infant mortality were not based on epidemiological surveys have been shown to underestimate the rates by more than 50%. 2. Routine statistics collected by the Chinese family planning system proved to be a reliable data source for studying perinatal health, including still births, neonatal deaths, sex ratio at birth and among newborns. National Household Health Survey data proved to be a useful and reliable data source for studying population health and health services. Prior to this research there were few studies in these areas available to international audiences. 3.Though perinatal mortality rate was negatively associated with the level of township economic development, the excess female early neonatal mortality rate contributed much more to high perinatal mortality rate than economic factors. This was likely a result of the role of the family planning policy and the traditional preferences for sons, which leads to lethal neglect of female newborns and high perinatal mortality. 4. The selective abortions of female foetuses were likely to contribute most to the high sex ratio at birth. The underreporting of female births seemed to have played a secondary role. The higher early neonatal mortality rate in second-born as compared to first-born children, particularly in females, may indicate that neglect or poorer care of female newborn infants also contributes to the high sex ratio at birth or among newborns. Existing family planning policy proved not to effectively control the steadily increased birth sex ratio. 5. The rural-urban gap in service utilization was on average significantly narrowed in terms of maternal healthcare in China from 1991 to 2003. This demonstrates that significant achievements in reducing inequities can be made through a combination of socio-economic development and targeted investments in improving health services, including infrastructure, staff capacities, and subsidies to reduce the costs of service utilization for the poorest. However, the huge gap which persisted among cities of different size and within different types of rural areas indicated the need for further efforts to support the poorest areas. 6. Hospital delivery care in the study county was better accepted by women because most of women think delivery care was very important while prenatal and postnatal care were not. Hospital delivery care was more systematically provided and promoted than prenatal and postnatal care by township hospital in the study area. The reliance of hospital staff income on user fees gave the hospitals an incentive to put more emphasis on revenue generating activities such as delivery care instead of prenatal and postnatal care, since delivery care generated much profits than prenatal and postnatal care . Recommendations 1. It is essential for the central government to re-assess and modify existing family planning policies. In order to keep national sex balance, the existing practice of one couple one child in urban areas and at-least-one-son a couple in rural areas should be gradually changed to a two-children-a-couple policy throughout the country. The government should establish a favourable social security policy for couples, especially for rural couples who have only daughters, with particular emphasis on their pension and medical care insurance, combined with an educational campaign for equal rights for boys and girls in society. 2. There is currently no routine vital-statistics registration system in rural China. Using the findings of this study, the central government could set up a routine vital-statistics registration system using family planning routine work records, which could be used by policy makers and researchers. 3. It is possible for the central and provincial government to invest more in the less developed and poor rural areas to increase the access of pregnant women in these areas to maternal care services. Central government together with local government should gradually provide free maternal care including prenatal and postnatal as well as delivery care to the women in poor and less developed rural areas. 4. Future research could be done to explore if county and the township level health care sector and the family planning system could be merged to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of maternal and child care. 5. Future research could be done to explore the relative contribution of maternal care, economic development and family planning policy on perinatal and child health using prospective cohort studies and community based randomized trials. Key words: perinatal health, perinatal mortality, stillbirth, neonatal death, sex selective abortion, sex ratio at birth, family planning, son preference, maternal care, prenatal care, postnatal care, equity, China

Koti keskellä kaupunkia : Keskusta lapsiperheen asuinalueena, esimerkkeinä Tukholma ja Helsinki

Families with children have traditionally moved to suburbs. In the last 20 years a modest counter process has however been recognized. Families with an urban lifestyle stay in the city centres. This study looks at the phenomenon through two cases, Stockholm and Helsinki. In the first case it has already been observed that the city centre has grown in popularity among families with children. Therefore it serves as a basis for the study and as well as a point of comparison. Stockholm’s city centre is expanding as new neighbourhoods have been built and are being planned. In the city centre of Helsinki the building of two large neighbourhoods for 30 000 inhabitants will start in a few years. The first aim of the study is to look closer at what has really happened in the city centre of Stockholm, why families choose to live there with their children and how the City of Stockholm has reacted to the change. The main sources of information are secondary sources, statistics and interviews with planners, politicians and experts in the field. The main object is to look at the situation in the city centre of Helsinki. Can a preference for urban residential environments be observed in Helsinki? What are the reasons for a family to choose the city centre as a living place? How does the everyday life of a family in the city centre appear? How are these families taken into account in the planning of the city? The main sources of information here are statistics, interviews with dwellers in the neighbourhood Kruununhaka and interviews with planners. In Stockholm the birth rate has grown constantly during the 2000s and is highest in the city centre. Some of the families still move elsewhere, but many of them do not. One of the most important reasons for living in the city centre is short working distances which give working parents more time with their children. Another reason is a preference of an urban, active lifestyle. Families prefer to live close to everything, childcare, schools, shops and entertainments. The popularity of the city centre among families with children has taken politicians and planners by surprise. Helsinki has not experienced a baby boom like Stockholm. However the negative changes in the birth rate have been more modest in the central areas than in the suburbs. Statistics show, that many families move away from the city centre as the children grow. Families who stay in the city centre especially appreciate closeness to public and private services and good public transportation which means that they are not dependent on using the car. Further they find that the city centre has a tolerant climate and is a safe and beautiful place to live in. The families enjoy the social life of the neighbourhood and feel that it makes a good climate to raise children in. However they are concerned with traffic safety and the lack of stimulus in the playgrounds of the neighbourhood parks. Two large neighbourhoods with homes for about 30 000 inhabitants are now planned in the former Port Districts in the city centre of Helsinki. The other one, Jätkäsaari has been planned to become an attractive alternative for families with children. Traffic safety has been one of the main objects for the planning. The other, Kalasatama, has been planned to attract all groups in society.

Kirkkoon kuuluminen Helsingin osa-alueilla

In Helsinki's evangelical lutheran congregations, the share of the people being members of that church compared with all the people living in their specific geographical areas varies from 62,4 per cent in Paavali to 80,7 per cent in Munkkiniemi. The boundaries of the congregations are about to be redrawn to level the differences in the congregations. In this thesis, the reasons of the differences in Helsinki s districts were studied closer. The data consisted of statistical information gathered from the Population Information System of Finland. It included information by age groups about the population register keeper, marital status, native tongue, level of education and gender in the end of 2005. Additional data was gathered from Helsinki Region Statistics web service. It included information about the dwelling, level of income and main activities of the inhabitants in the districts. The main method was stepwise linear regression. Minor methods were crosstabulation and correlation matrixes. The result of the study was a statistical model that explains 72,2 per cent of the variation of the shares in the congregations. The dependent variable was the share of the people being members of evangelical lutheran church in the dirstricts. The independent variables were the share of the people having other than Finnish or Swedish as their native tongue, the share of rented apartments, the shares of apartments including four rooms and a kitchen, the share of detached houses in the districts and the shares of women and people with no income in the districts. The independent variables present in the model depict the amount of foreigners, dwellings, gender and the level of income of the population. The high share of foreigners, people with no income and rented apartments explain the low share of the people being members of evangelical lutheran church. On the contrary, the high share of the people being members of evangelical lutheran church in the district is explained by the large apartments, detached houses and amount of women living there.

Field investigations of the 30 September 1993 earthquake in Maharashtra

An engineering field study of the 30 September Marathwada earthquake is reported. The study covered Osmanabad, Latur, Sholapur, Bijapur, Gulbarga and Bidar districts. The level of ground acceleration was estimated based on tilting of free standing objects. The study shows that the epicentral intensity has been VIII on the UNESCO scale. The horizontal ground acceleration near the epicentre has been estimated to be about 0.2 g.

An ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants in the Eastern Himalayan zone of Arunachal Pradesh, India

Aim of the study: The medicinal plants are integral source of easily available remedy used in rural healthcare system. This study was conducted among three major ethnic groups namely the Nocte, the Nyishi and the Adi in the Eastern Himalayan region of Arunachal Pradesh to evaluate their comparative knowledge on medicinal plants. Materials and methods: The three remote districts of Arunachal Pradesh namely the Tirap, the Dibang Valley and the Papum Pare were surveyed through interviewing of randomly selected 237 participants using semi-structured questionnaire and regular field visits to selected districts. Results: We recorded the traditional use of 74 medicinal plants species belonging to 41 taxonomic plant families used for treating a total of 25 different diseases/ailments. The informant consensus factor (ICF) values demonstrated that local people tend to agree more with each other in terms of the plants used to treat malaria (0.71), jaundice (0.62), urological problems (0.56), dermatological disorders (0.45), pain (0.30), and respiratory disorder (0.33), and while the general health (0.15) and gastro-intestinal disorders category (0.28) were found low ICF values. Conclusion: Of the total 74 species recorded, the highest number of medicinal plants (36 species) was reported from the Adi of Lower Dibang Valley followed by the Nocte of the Tirap (25 species) and the Nyishi ethnic groups of Papum Pare districts (13 species). In the present study, we found that the men, elder people and illiterate ones had better knowledge on medicinal plants as compared to women, younger and literate people. Findings of this documentation study can be used as an ethnopharmacological basis for selecting plants for future phytochemical and pharmaceutical studies. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Management of the rhesus monkey Macaca mulatta and hanuman langur Presbytis entellus in Himachal Pradesh, India

The rhesus monkey Macaca mulatta and Hanuman langur Presbytis entellus are distributed all over the State of Himachal Pradesh, India. Although both species inhabit forested areas, only rhesus monkeys seem also to have become urbanized. There are about 200,000 rhesus monkeys and 120,000 Hanuman langurs. A three-year survey at Shimla showed an increasing trend in their populations. Potential threats to survival of these primates differ in the 12 districts. The two species differ in feeding and habitat preferences. People's feelings, perceptions and attitudes reward them point to an incipient man-monkey conflict and erosion of conservation ethics. A comprehensive management plan for these primates should be formulated, and involve local people. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Limited

Climate change vulnerability profiles for North East India

Climate change vulnerability profiles are developed at the district level for agriculture, water and forest sectors for the North East region of India for the current and projected future climates. An index-based approach was used where a set of indicators that represent key sectors of vulnerability (agriculture, forest, water) is selected using the statistical technique principal component analysis. The impacts of climate change on key sectors as represented by the changes in the indicators were derived from impact assessment models. These impacted indicators were utilized for the calculation of the future vulnerability to climate change. Results indicate that majority of the districts in North East India are subject to climate induced vulnerability currently and in the near future. This is a first of its kind study that exhibits ranking of districts of North East India on the basis of the vulnerability index values. The objective of such ranking is to assist in: (i) identifying and prioritizing the most vulnerable sectors and districts; (ii) identifying adaptation interventions, and (iii) mainstreaming adaptation in development programmes.

Seismic Hazard and Microzonation Studies using Geographic Information System - A Case Study of Bangalore city

Seismic hazard and microzonation of cities enable to characterize the potential seismic areas that need to be taken into account when designing new structures or retrofitting the existing ones. Study of seismic hazard and preparation of geotechnical microzonation maps has been attempted using Geographical Information System (GIS). GIS will provide an effective solution for integrating different layers of information thus providing a useful input for city planning and in particular input to earthquake resistant design of structures in an area. Seismic hazard is the study of expected earthquake ground motions at any point on the earth. Microzonation is the process of sub division of region in to number of zones based on the earthquake effects in the local scale. Seismic microzonation is the process of estimating response of soil layers under earthquake excitation and thus the variation of ground motion characteristic on the ground surface. For the seismic microzonation, geotechnical site characterization need to be assessed at local scale (micro level), which is further used to assess of the site response and liquefaction susceptibility of the sites. Seismotectonic atlas of the area having a radius of 350km around Bangalore has been prepared with all the seismogenic sources and historic earthquake events (a catalogue of about 1400 events since 1906). We have attempted to carryout the site characterization of Bangalore by collating conventional geotechnical boreholes data (about 900 borehole data with depth) and integrated in GIS. 3-D subsurface model of Bangalore prepared using GIS is shown in Figure 1.Further, Shear wave velocity survey based on geophysical method at about 60 locations in the city has been carried out in 220 square Kms area. Site response and local site effects have been evaluated using 1-dimensional ground response analysis. Spatial variability of soil overburden depths, ground surface Peak Ground Acceleration’s(PGA), spectral acceleration for different frequencies, liquefaction susceptibility have been mapped in the 220 sq km area using GIS.ArcInfo software has been used for this purpose. These maps can be used for the city planning and risk & vulnerability studies. Figure 2 shows a map of peak ground acceleration at rock level for Bangalore city. Microtremor experiments were jointly carried out with NGRI scientists at about 55 locations in the city and the predominant frequency of the overburden soil columns were evaluated.

Vegetation Status in Uttara Kannada District

Uttara Kannada is the only district in Karnataka, which has a forested area of about 80% and falls in the region of the Western Ghats. It is considered to be a very resourceful in terms of abundant natural resources and constitutes an important district in Karnataka. The forest resources of the district are under pressure as a large portion of the forested area has been converted to non-forestry activities since independence owing to the increased demands from human and animal population resulting in degradation of the forest ecosystem. This has led to poor productivity and regenerative capacity which is evident in the form of barren hill tops, etc in Coastal taluks of Uttara Kannada, entailing regular monitoring of the forest resources very essential. The classification of forest is a prerequisite for managing forest resources. Geographical Information System (GIS), allows the spatial and temporal analysis of the features of interest, and helps in solving the problem of deforestation and associated environmental and ecological problems. Spatial and temporal tools such as GIS and remotely sensed data helps the planners and decision makers in evolving the sustainable strategies for management and conservation of natural resources. Uttara Kannada district was classified on the basis of the land-use using supervised hard classifiers. The land use categories identified were urban area, water bodies, agricultural land, forest cover, and waste land. Further classification was carried out on the basis of forest type. The types of forest categorised were semi-evergreen, evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, plantations and scrub, thorny and non-forested area. The identified classes were correlated with the ground data collected during field visits. The observed results were compared with the historic data and the changes in the forest cover were analysed. From the assessment made it was clear that there has been a considerable degree of forest loss in certain areas of the district. It was also observed that plantations and social forests have increased drastically over the last fifteen years, and natural forests have declined.

Solar energy potential assessment using GIS

Renewable energy resources are those having a cycling time less than 100 years and are renewed by the nature and their supply exceeds the rate of consumption. Renewable energy systems use resources that are constantly replaced in nature and are usually less polluting. In order to tap the potential of renewable energy sources, there is a need to assess the availability of resources spatially as well as temporally. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) along with Remote Sensing (RS) helps in mapping on spatial and temporal scales of the resources and demand. The spatial database of resource availability and the demand would help in the regional energy planning. This paper discusses the application of geographical information system (GIS) to map the solar potential in Karnataka state, India. Regions suitable for tapping solar energy are mapped on the basis of global solar radiation data, and this analysis provides a picture of the potential. The study identifies that Coastal parts of Karnataka with the higher global solar radiation is ideally suited for harvesting solar energy. The potential analysis reveals that, maximum global solar radiation is in districts such as Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada. Global solar radiation in Uttara Kannada during summer, monsoon and winter are 6.31, 4.40 and 5.48 kWh/sq.m, respectively. Similarly, Dakshina Kannada has 6.16, 3.89 and 5.21 kWh/sq.m during summer, monsoon and winter.

Vegetation Analysis in Uttara Kannada District Using GIS and Remote Sensing Techniques

Uttara Kannada is the only district in Karnataka, which has a forested area of about 80% and falls in the region of the Western Ghats. It is considered to be a very resourceful in terms of abundant natural resources and constitutes an important district in Karnataka. The forest resources of the district are under pressure as a large portion of the forested area has been converted to non-forestry activities since independence owing to the increased demands from human and animal population resulting in degradation of the forest ecosystem. This has led to poor productivity and regenerative capacity which is evident in the form of barren hill tops, etc in Coastal taluks of Uttara Kannada, entailing regular monitoring of the forest resources very essential. The classification of forest is a prerequisite for managing forest resources. Geographical Information System (GIS), allows the spatial and temporal analysis of the features of interest, and helps in solving the problem of deforestation and associated environmental and ecological problems. Spatial and temporal tools such as GIS and remotely sensed data helps the planners and decision makers in evolving the sustainable strategies for management and conservation of natural resources. Uttara Kannada district was classified on the basis of the land-use using supervised hard classifiers. The land use categories identified were urban area, water bodies, agricultural land, forest cover, and waste land. Further classification was carried out on the basis of forest type. The types of forest categorised were semi-evergreen, evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, plantations and scrub, thorny and non-forested area. The identified classes were correlated with the ground data collected during field visits. The observed results were compared with the historic data and the changes in the forest cover were analysed. From the assessment made it was clear that there has been a considerable degree of forest loss in certain areas of the district. It was also observed that plantations and social forests have increased drastically over the last fifteen years,and natural forests have declined.